Thursday, December 8, 2011

There are few sensations that can beat the thrill of a frivolous purchase. After struggling all month to make sure that the rent, bills, and car payments are paid in a timely fashion, it can be downright exhilarating to blow a big chunk of change on something unnecessary.
Sadly, the thrill passes once the next billing cycle kicks in. That $300 pair of shoes may have seemed like a well-deserved extravagance, but now it’s starting to feel like an ill-advised and anxiety-provoking mistake.
The morning-after regret of the frolicsome purchase is familiar to almost anyone living on a budget. However, it’s something that billionaires never have to confront. They can indulge their whims and buy every toy that catches their fancy, however briefly. This includes antique cars, jumbo jets, and even spaceships. No urge is too outrageous and no desire is too extravagant.
It's never to early to think about what your family or friends are wanting for a Christmas present. Are you stumped on what to get your sweetheart? It's never too early to find that perfect gift and nothing is better than to finish your holiday shopping early. Here are a few ideas that may make you the darling of all who are looking forward for that special gift from you!

Microsoft’s Bill Gates may get all the coverage, but he shares credit for founding Microsoftwith Paul Allen. Though less recognized, Allen’s role in turning the company into what it is today cannot be overstated. He came up with the Microsoft name, and he brokered the deal to put the operating system that his company owned into every personal computer manufactured by IBM.
Allen stepped down from the company in 2000, but not without walking away with 138 million shares. Today, he has a net worth of $13 billion, and he used some of that money to buy “Octopus,” a yacht that he bought for $200 million . The yacht is more than 400-feet long and is outfitted with a basketball court, a hot tub, and, of course, landing pads for two helicopters.

Phil Ruffin is involved in a diverse number of businesses, including gambling, real estate, and oil production. He lives in Las Vegas and is no stranger to the Forbes 400 List. In his 2008 appearance , the magazine estimated his net worth at $2.1 billion.
A private jet is the de rigueur mode of travel to spirit a billionaire from one luxurious locale to the next. However, Ruffin is no ordinary billionaire, so he spent $70 million on a Boeing 737 jumbo jet , then put an additional $15 million into renovating the interior, which he outfitted with leather seats, two full bedrooms, and a $1 million entertainment system.

S. Truett Cathy is the founder of Chick-fil-A, a fast-food chain headquartered in College Park, Ga. The business has made a very rich man out of the now 90-year-old Cathy, and today his net worth is an estimated $2 billion .
The World War II veteran is also, one presumes, a big fan of superhero vigilantes. While 1992’s "Batman Returns " film may not be the most memorable installment in the "Batman" movie franchise, it made such an impression on Cathy that he spent $250,000 to buy himself the Batmobile used in its filming.

Hassanal Bolkiah is better known by his job title, the Sultan of Brunei. His home, the Istana Nurul Iman, holds the current Guinness Record for the largest single-family residence on earth. Its 564 chandeliers use 51,000 light bulbs, and a house tour reveals more than 250 bathrooms, a mosque that can hold 1,500 people, and a garage for 110 cars.
Speaking of cars, the Sultan is a collector, and he owns more than 1,900 automobiles, including Bentleys, Ferraris, and Porsches. However, the prize of his fleet is the “Star of India,” a Rolls Royce convertible that he bought for $14 million , making it the most expensive car in the world by far.

Roman Abramovich is the owner of Millhouse LLC, a private investment firm. The Russian businessman is also the owner of the Chelsea Football Club, and together these ventures have brought him a net worth of more than $13 billion , a sum that would have been inconceivable to his fellow countrymen just a few decades ago. Abramovich spent $450 million of that wealth on “The Eclipse,” his private yacht. It’s the largest yacht in the world and it has amenities that can be hard to find on most luxury yachts, such as a missile-detection system and a submarine.

To most people in the industrialized world, Bill Gates needs no introduction. Microsoft’s chairman has been one of the richest people in the world for nearly two decades, and he has held the title for wealthiest overall on numerous occasions. As of March 2011, his approximate net worth is said to be $56 billion .
Gates has not been shy about purchasing items that can be described as “big ticket.” This includes one of Leonardo Da Vinci’s few surviving scientific journals, which he purchased at a 1994 auction for almost $31 million . Rather than keep it to himself, he had it scanned and made its contents available to the general public, who can buy it on CD for $30, or less than 0.0001 percent of his original purchase price.

Richard Branson is the chairman of the Virgin Group, a conglomerate with 400 companies under its umbrella. These companies include Virgin Atlantic Airways, Virgin Mobile, and the somewhat less well-known Virgin Galactic. This company was founded in 2004 with the goal of offering six minutes of space travel to anyone with $200,000 .
Branson unveiled his galactic vessel, “SpaceShipTwo,” at the 2006 NextFest technology exhibition in New York City. It seats eight, including two crew members. Once in sub-orbital space, passengers are encouraged to unbuckle themselves and enjoy the experience of weightlessness inside the fuselage. Branson’s craft is not ready to go into service, but when it does, his exotic toy is expected to fly passengers from London to Sydney in 30 minutes.

Movie director Steven Spielberg has helmed some of the most popular films of all time, such as "Jaws," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," and "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial." In 2011, he was said to have a net worth of $3 billion .
In 1982, he purchased a piece of movie memorabilia at a Sotheby’s auction for $60,500 . The item was “Rosebud,” the sled from the 1941 Orson Welles classic film "Citizen Kane." At the time of its purchase, it was the most expensive movie prop ever sold.

Mark Cuban is the owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, as well as Magnolia Pictures and the Landmark Theaters chain. As if that weren’t enough to keep him busy, he also serves as chairman of HDNet, a television station that broadcasts exclusively in high-definition. As of March 2011, his estimated net worth is $2.5 billion .
In 1999, Cuban bought a Gulfstream V, a private plane normally used for business travel that’s sometimes used as a military vehicle. It set him back $40 million, and it also earned him a spot in the Guinness Book of Records , as it constituted the single most expensive e-commerce transaction in history .

Victoria “Posh Spice” Beckham is a regular fixture in supermarket tabloids. Technically, she should be ineligible for inclusion in this slideshow, as she and her husband, footballer David Beckham, have a collective net worth of only $271 million , well short of $1 billion. However, they engage in displays of conspicuous consumption that rank right up there with those of billionaires.
One such purchase was noted in February 2011 by The Daily Mail, who caught Beckham at New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport carrying a custom-made gold iPhone. The device cost just under $36,000, and featured a photo of her dreamy athlete husband in all his shirtless glory as its wallpaper.

Make your own hot cocoa at home! Serve this at any party or gathering or any night you need to keep warm during the upcoming fall and winter seasons.
Store this in mason jars or package to give away as gifts! Who doesn't like some hot chocolate with a cookie or two!

Amaretto Hot Cocoa

5 ¼ cups dry milk

2 cups powdered sugar

1 (8 ounce) jar of Amaretto flavored powdered coffee creamer

1 ¾ cup cocoa powder

1 2/4 cups plain powdered coffee creamer

¼ tsp salt

Combine all ingredients.

Store as desired.

To serve: Add 3-4 Tbsp of mixture to 1 cup of hot water or hot milk. Add 1 tsp of sugar if desired. Also add some whipped cream or mini marshmallows to the top. For an extra touch grate some orange zest or a bit of chocolate over the top.

I’ve been on a roll with rolling paper since I made the paper chess set for O.T. last month. As meticulous an undertaking that was, I really enjoyed myself and couldn’t wait to apply the technique to Christmas ornaments. These bright rolled paper ornaments are substantially simpler and make for a whimsical handmade addition to your tree.

You will need construction paper in various colors, matching ribbons, foam adhesive tape (mounting tape), double sided tape, and a bit of white glue. Check your local dollar store instead of a hardware store for the mounting tape. I got 2 in a pack, each roll being 16 feet long. I thought that was a steal!﻿

1. Cut construction paper lengthwise (9″ long) in the following widths, in alternating colors: 3″, 2-3/4″, 2-1/2″, 2-1/4″, 2″, 1-3/4″, 1-1/2″, 1-1/4″, and 1″.
2. Take the widest piece and adhere mounting tape across the center. Take 8″ of ribbon, fold, and place on the mounting tape.
3. Roll.
4. Take the second widest piece and adhere mounting tape across the center.
5. Roll. Repeat for all pieces, going from widest, until you’ve rolled the second last piece.
6. When you get to the narrowest piece, place the mounting tape directly on the center of the ornament, and cut it about 3/4″ from where you began. Place double sided tape where the seams will meet. This will ensure the final seam is flat, and not raised.
7. Roll the final piece only once around and cut at the seam.
8. Take a long strip of construction paper at 1/8″ wide and quill (roll) until you get curls and cut at random lengths. Dip the quilled strips in glue and apply across the ornament

I’d been watching the city municipal workers assemble the rows of wooden stalls and the three-story Christmas tree in Wrocław’s town center since the middle of November. The outdoor Christmas market seemed like it was going to be a huge event. Sprawled across two lengths of the square, the builders worked just as hard at assembling as they did at shoveling the continually on-coming snow heralding the beginning of the Polish winter.
I knew the day the market opened by the smell. Fried kielbasa, baked gingerbread, and the distinct linger of hot mulled wine invited me in as I walked from my bus stop toward the building where I work. Luckily, the town square is positioned so that a detour through the market was, actually, right on the way.

I spent my first walk through the market hovering around the rows of stalls, and couldn’t resist the one selling warm mugs of spiced wine. The drink functioned as both cozy beverage and a hand-warmer, and I wished there was an equally pleasant way to warm my slowly numbing feet. The temperature had been hovering around minus 10 degrees all week.
Walking through the market did more than boost my sensory input and numb my feet, though. It pulled together a slew of sensations that walked the line between memories and nostalgia. It reminded me of America, and the traditions I grew up with as a child. It reminded me of Germany, where I spent last Christmas. But the constant underlying reminder was the one that kept whispering, “You’re living in Poland now.”
It also made me think about traditions.
Though traditions may seem like timeless and immovable patterns, breakable only at the expense of society falling to pieces, they are actually quite the opposite. Traditions are adaptable, flexible, and constantly changing to fit the time and place in which they exist.
As I watched Wrocław residents and tourists alike snapping photos of the newly-opened market stalls and the life-sized reindeer and sleigh, I couldn’t help wondering, will people look back at these photos and connect them with the idea of Polish traditions? The market is indeed a local Wrocław tradition, and does incorporate many Polish Christmas traditions. But it’s bigger than that. It overlaps with traditions from other parts of Europe and from America, combining to create a flexible framework that probably changes a little bit every year.

Christmas markets have a multiple-century history, originating in German-speaking parts of Europe from the late middle-ages onward. The market in Dresden, Germany, is one of the oldest in the world, dating from the mid-1400s. Last year, I spent Christmas Eve wandering through the dozens of Christmas markets in Berlin. The faux wooden stands of Wrocław’s market, the distinct smell of frying sausage and the children’s carnival rides are a mirror reflection of the markets I experienced last year. It’s only been a recent development, within the past two decades or so, that the Christmas market tradition has begun to spread across Slavic-speaking Europe. So it’s no surprise that there would be such an overlap, and that a wander through the Wrocław market would remind me of the lasting impressions from Berlin’s markets.
Despite the German influences, the market was simultaneously Polish as well. Multiple stalls advertisedpierogi and kiełbasa. One stall specialized in naleśniki, Polish pancakes. Another sold the various types of fish that are the staple component of a Polish Christmas Eve dinner.

The market was also marked as distinctly local – distinctly Wrocławian – by the life-sized gnome guarding the entrance. Gnomes play a large role in creating local identity in Wrocław. They were inspired by a local leader of Solidarity, the movement which, during the 1980s, united people around the country in countering, and eventually overthrowing, the Communist government. Small gnome sculptures hide throughout the town square, a reminder of the city’s more recent history.
On the other side of the market, I noticed American-inspired commercialism seeping in (the kind that has been adopted and modified and made local around the world). I felt as though I was walking through the mall in the suburban Cleveland town in which I grew up. One stall sold knick-knack angels and ornaments with the inevitable made-in-china sticker hiding at the bottom. Another sold Hot Topic-esque tshirts and hookahs.
As I walked past the stall selling carp, I was reminded of a conversation I’d had with a few of my students, comparing Christmas traditions. As a fourth-generation American of Polish descent, my family still uses some Polish traditions to shape our own holiday patterns. The topic of our conversation overlapped, criss-crossing here and there as we described our respective Christmas Eve traditions.
In Poland, Christmas Eve (Wigilia) – 24th December – is the most important day of the holiday season. As a child, I’d always been aware that most people in America didn’t celebrate Christmas like we did. While most of my childhood friends counted the days until Christmas morning – 25th December, when they’d open the stack of presents under the tree, I counted the days until Christmas Eve, when my family ate pierogi and opened gifts before attending midnight church service.
But sometimes the comparisons in our conversation veered away from each other as well. My family has modified and adapted many Polish traditions to better fit patterns in America. For example, one staple Christmas dish in Poland is carp. Many of my Polish students have memories – some distant childhood memories, some annually-occurring ones – of buying the carp live and providing it a bathtub-habitation for a few days before Christmas Eve. Such a vast difference from the honey-baked ham that accompanies the pierogis on my family’s dinner table.
The market stalls began to taper off as my feet continued to grow colder and colder. Passing by the sparkling Christmas tree that marked the end of the market, I stepped back into the pattern of my regular day, and continued my walk to work.

Bethlehem is the town where Jesus Christ is said to have been born. Naturally, Christmas here is a major event and the festival is celebrated in a grand manner.
Here, Christmas Day is observed not on a particular day. Bethlehem consists of people of different Christian denominations - Catholics, Protestants, Greek Orthodoxes, Ethiopians, Armenians and more.
While Roman Catholics and Protestants celebrate Christmas Day on December 25, Greek, Syrian and other Orthodox Christians observe it on 6th January. For Armenian Christians, Christmas Day is on January 18. Hence, Bethlehem witnesses a longer Christmas celebrations than many other places.

In Bethlehem, Roman Catholic services begin on December 24 and take place in St. Catherine's Church , a Catholic church adjacent to the Orthodox Basilica of the Nativity. Protestants hold their services in a different way. While some of them may attend special Christmas services in their local churches, others may arrange excursions for special services in the Shepherd's Fields or the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Some of the popular Jerusalem chuches such as The Anglican Cathedral of St. George, the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer and the YMCA organize travel to Bethlehem for Christmas Eve celebrations. Orthodox Christians(Greek Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox, Romanian Orthodox and others) celebrate the birth of Jesus by taking out numerous religious processions and holding special services mainly at the Basilica of the Nativity. Most Armenian Christmas services are also held in the Basilica, albeit a little later, on January 18. The Christmas processions usually pass through Manger Square, believed to be situated on the traditional site of Jesus' birth.

The general Christmas traditions in Bethlehem are similar to the Europeans and North American customs observed during the festival. From a few days before 25th December, the town is decorated with flags and other items of adornment. Streets are strung with Christmas lights. A Christmas market comes up and Christmas plays are performed. A cross is painted on the doors of every Christian home and Nativity scenes are displayed in every household.
On Christmas Eve, annual Christmas processions are taken out. Residents of the town as well as tourists crowd the doorways and the roof of the Basilica to get a view of the parade. Galloping horsemen and police mounted on Arabian horses lead the procession. The procession is led by galloping horsemen and police mounted over Arabian horses; followed by a man riding over a black steed and carrying a cross. After him comes the churchmen and government officials. The procession quitely enters the doors and puts an ancient effigy of the Holy Child in the Church. The visitors are then taken through deep winding stairs leading to a grotto where a silver star marks the site of the birth of Jesus.

This comes from www.twistofdazzle.blogspot.com. A good idea, especially if you've got alot of extra ornaments around. Also it's different than the same old evergreen wreath you probably have every year. If you put it on your front door it will give people coming over to visit, something to talk about and you can share with them about how you made it. Good luck!

Christmas ornament wreath

Ok! It’s time. I have been wanting to post this for over a month, but thought I should wait till at least Halloween was over. Last year I found the coolest ornament wreaths online and wanted to make one. Since I didn’t have time before Christmas, I decided my goal would be to collect ornaments after Christmas for cheap and then start it in June of July and have it done by Christmas 2011. Well I did it, and I LOVE it. By far the coolest wreath I have done. (and actually hope it gets pinned one pinterest) haha

This is what I started with, and decided to wrap strips of felt around the wreath. I didn’t want to take the plastic off the wreath, but I was afraid the hot glue would melt it. So who knows if it made any difference!

I did not have a pattern, or certain colors picked out to use. I used foam balls, plastic balls, and a few glass balls. Pretty much whatever I could find. First I wrapped some ribbon around the wreath, so it would be ready to hang. Then I started gluing in the inside of the wreath and then putting them on the outside.

I then started filling in the gaps and had to go to smaller ornaments.

I used A LOT of balls, I'm not exactly sure how many, but did have to take a couple trips to Hobby Lobby for more.

I pretty much think my wreath rocks, and can not wait to hang it on my mirror above my fireplace.

Best Traditional Scottish Shortbread Cookies

Best Traditional Scottish Shortbread Cookies

Another classic Christmas cookie - Shortbread is a traditional Scottish dessert that consists of three basic ingredients: flour, sugar, and butter. According to Wikpedia, this cookie resulted from medieval biscuit bread, which was a twice baked, enriched bread roll dusted with sugar and spices and hardened into a soft and sweetened biscuit called a Rusk. Eventually, yeast from the original Rusk recipe was replaced by butter, which was becoming more of a staple in the British Isles. Despite the fact that shortbread was prepared during much of the 12th century, the refinement of shortbread was actually accredited to Mary, Queen of Scots, in the 16th century. The name of one of the most famous and most traditional forms of shortbread, petticoat tails, were named by Queen Mary. This type of shortbread was baked, cut into triangular wedges as they are in this recipe from Cook’s Illustrated. Download Best Traditional Scottish Shortbread Cookies recipe

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees. Pulse oats in spice grinder or blender until reduced to fine powder, about ten 5-second pulses (you should have ¼ to 1/3 cup oat flour). In bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix oat flour, all-purpose flour, cornstarch, sugar, and salt on low speed until combined, about 5 seconds. Add butter to dry ingredients and continue to mix on low speed until dough just forms and pulls away from sides of bowl, 5 to 10 minutes.

2. Place upside-down (grooved edge should be at top) collar of 9- or 9 1/2-inch springform pan on parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet (do not use springform pan bottom). Press dough into collar in even 1/2-inch-thick layer, smoothing top of dough with back of spoon. Place 2-inch biscuit cutter in center of dough and cut out center. Place extracted round alongside springform collar on baking sheet and replace cutter in center of dough. Open springform collar, but leave it in place.

3. Bake shortbread 5 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 250 degrees. Continue to bake until edges turn pale golden, 10 to 15 minutes longer. Remove baking sheet from oven; turn off oven. Remove springform pan collar; use chef’s knife to score surface of shortbread into 16 even wedges, cutting halfway through shortbread. Using wooden skewer, poke 8 to 10 holes in each wedge. Return shortbread to oven and prop door open with handle of wooden spoon, leaving 1-inch gap at top. Allow shortbread to dry in turned-off oven until pale golden in center (shortbread should be firm but giving to touch), about 1 hour.

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A LITTLE BIO FOR YOU

I am passionate about Halloween and Christmas. Many nights spent in the lab making and creating new props and decorations. I have been married for 25 years and have teenage twins (a boy and girl). I like 80's rock, all kinds of sports,thriller and action movies. I also moonlight as a pastry chef/baker.